Cat

This is the one that started it all. Cartoonist B. Kliban's iconic cats were unleashed on the public at large in 1975 with Cat, a collection of some 150 enigmatic and hilarious drawings that launched an entire genre in publishing and licensing. In his introduction, from 1992, Art Spiegelman calls it "the book that single-handedly made 'Cat' a household word.... Nobody drew cats like Kliban. Solemn, simultaneously omniscient and dim-witted, they have all the Rubenesque grace of a 1950 Buick. His cats are as difficult to pin down and define as any real cat, and that is their ineffable magic." Almost 40 years later, Cat is as singular and brilliant as ever.